1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to tool layout apparatuses and methods, and particularly to an automatic tool layout apparatus and method used in a computer-aided manufacturing system for sheet-metal punching.
2. Background of the Invention
With the ongoing globalization of commerce, market competition between modern international corporations is becoming more and more intense. All such manufacturing corporations have to try their best to improve their competitiveness. Improving production efficiency is a never-ending challenge. Improvements in machine punching tool hardware and falling commodity prices have helped increase many corporations' efficiency. Further, the use of computers to automate manufacturing has become popular, and has improved the speed and quality of sheet-metal punching. Sheet-metal punching at the present time mostly uses CAD (Computer Aided Design) to form 3-dimension models and define workpieces, and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) to select an optimum manufacturing path for a punching tool.
There are two notable problems with automated sheet-metal punching at the present time: only experienced technicians are able to select an optimum punching tool for each type of drawing entity of workpieces, and to select an optimum manufacturing path for the punching tool; and database accessing is numerous and time-consuming when configuring a layout of the punching tools.
There is a need for an apparatus and method which can overcome the abovementioned problems of high labor intensity, human error, and limited production efficiency.